Cans behind the bike, a bell and a sweet sandwich with syrup. For generations of Haarlemmers, the start of the Whitsun weekend is inextricably linked to Luilak. But who is still taking to the streets on Saturday morning to kick an old -fashioned game of noise?
When Linda Drost breathed new life into the Luilak tradition four years ago with her husband and brother-in-law, she ran into some unexpected problems. The children had to be explained what exactly the intention was, there on the street at six in the morning. But that was not so strange afterwards. It was more surprising that when making noise had just begun, there were three local residents out of the window. “What makes this on!?”
It took some getting used to the Leidsebuurt. In the past, when this part of Haarlem-West was still a working-class neighborhood, the Saturday morning for Pentecost guaranteed trammelant. “My husband grew up here,” says Linda. “When he was young, he went out with the neighborhood boys every year to celebrate Luilak. Binding cans behind the bike, smear candle wax, sing songs. When we came to live here later, nobody celebrated it anymore.”
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High time to change that, Linda, her husband and brother -in -law found in 2021. Since then they have been on the street with a group of children from the neighborhood every year during Luilak. Slowly but surely that group grows something. “Of course there is not much to it when you are on your own on your own. It helps to connect other children on the road, just like before.”
Big difference with the 70s and 80s
The efforts that Linda and her husband make to get the youth out of the street are at odds with the situation from half a century ago. In the 70s and 80s, the police, neighborhood workers and parents tried to keep the youth with all their might. Then there was a party during Luilak in almost every community center. There were even real festivals, such as the Luilak pop night in the Beyneshal.
The only constant all those years is the pot market. Since the end of the 19th century, a large market for flowers and plants has been organized on the Haarlemse Singels – first on the Kampervest, later on the Raamvest. In the past it lasted from Friday evening to far into the Saturday morning; Nowadays it stops at two in the morning. It is traditionally busy. And with that the Potjesmarkt is the only remaining, large-scale Luilak tradition in Haarlem.
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More than a hundred years later, the authorities have finally succeeded in their design. “Luilak is a tradition that is not appreciated by everyone,” says Ineke Strouken, former director of the Dutch Center for Folk Culture and Intangible Heritage. “The party already existed in the 16th century, we learn from old sources. It contains listings of irregularities, such as singing and screaming, boys who made things unsafe and fourders who threw dirt on the street.”
Noisiness and vandalism
The authorities tried to prevent that, for example by denying access to certain areas. In the 60s of the last century, the municipal administration of Haarlem made ‘Belletje’ pulling ‘during Luilaknacht. Every year young people were arrested for noisiness or vandalism. Strouken: “Governments, such as Haarlem, tried to civilize the party by organizing early flower markets in its place.”
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The addition of the flower markets led to a special mix of activities during Luilak in Haarlem. Young people who had set the city on the night came home in the morning with a lovely flower for their mother.
In 2025, little is put on the day before Pentecost in Haarlem. Apart from the group that Linda has called in the Leidsebuurt, few children with rattling cans go into the street. The pot market, on the other hand, is still popular. The world hardenes, but in Haarlem the Luilak tradition has become a lot losier.
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